Project: track 240z

[Dave]

Huzzah, six more months!!
SOOO, I took a few panels to have them sand-blasted (hood, hatch). The aircraft stripper is better than manually grinding off all the paint, but DAMN!!, sand-blasting is the way to go if you're working with a timeline. I worked with Kevin @ Tidewater Soda Blasting and highly recommend him!




Then I primered some more:



Then I repaired a pair of large cracks in my dashboard. I used a dremel to make them smoother and easier to work with, then applied a Bondo flexible bumper repair kit to build the area back up. After sanding it smooth to the dash contour, I used a tiny bit of body filler to fill some air pinholes uncovered during sanding. Works in process:



Once that was done, I flocked the dashboard with a kit from Donjer. The process is quick and easy: get a roller and spread a good coating of the colored adhesive on the item, and then immediately cover the wet area with the fibers. When you think you've covered it pretty well, throw on some more fibers just to be sure. Let it cure 48 hours and you're all done.
I also installed a MOMO steering wheel to get rid of my old stock wheel after I got the dash reinstalled:



I didn't have my mind together and forgot to install the defroster ducting before I installed the dash - that would have been a lot easier to do while it was out of the car... I'm sure the dash will come out again when I'm ready to do the guages, but frankly it's not a time-consuming job and at this point I can probably have it out in about a half hour when I get to that point.

Finally, I've made some more body progress... Both of my fenders and my cowl were pretty thoroughly chewed up with rust, so I bought some used ones and had them sandblasted as well (all in the tidewater area of VA, so it was pretty convenient). The passenger fender actually had to have a chunk cut out of it just to get it off the car years ago, and when it became apparent how much time it would take to repair the cowl and driver fender as well, the choice seemed pretty obvious compared to the cost. Contrary to how this thread may appear, I don't enjoy body work and there was going to be a ton of work in these three panels if I stuck with the old ones. Since he knew I wasn't going to get to paint them immediately, Kevin even put a quick coat of etching primer on them when he was done blasting to at least give a little guard against the elements in the meantime.




So, I'm a little behind in some of my annual goals for this project, but we'll see where the rest of this year takes me; there's still a few months left...